


Follow that Camel!

by Small_Hobbit



Series: The Marylebone Monthly Illustrated [18]
Category: Sherlock Holmes - Arthur Conan Doyle
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-19
Updated: 2019-05-19
Packaged: 2020-03-07 23:50:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,581
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18883810
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Small_Hobbit/pseuds/Small_Hobbit
Summary: The Sloth (sub-editor of theMarylebone Monthly Illustrated) relates the tale of the Ferret and the camel.  In which Holmes' plan goes awry, but everyone else plays their part admirably.





	Follow that Camel!

**Author's Note:**

> Written for DW's Ficletzone 'Song Titles of The Police' Challenge (Behind My Camel)

Regular readers of the _Marylebone Monthly Illustrated_ may remember the account of Lord Hallam’s sapphires and how a puppet play involving a camel was instrumental in preventing their theft.  It may be thought this would be the last which was seen of the camel, and for some months this was indeed the case, but then Mr Holmes had an idea.

It was not an idea which was greeted with much enthusiasm by Dr Watson, Aemelia Vole or Mouselet.  Even the Ferret expressed some doubts, which really should have rung a warning bell.  Nevertheless, Mr Holmes proceeded with his plan.

Holmes and Inspector Lestrade believed the proprietor of a certain toy shop was the liaison point for a particular gang who were involved in a smuggling racket.  Lestrade had so far been unable to prove anything.  Therefore, Holmes had told him he would give it some thought and see if there was a way of getting access to the shop.

That was where the camel came in. 

“We shall use the camel as a Trojan horse,” Holmes said.

This was greeted by a number of blank stares, after which Mouselet said, “The Trojans must have had some funny looking horses if they resembled camels.”

Even Dr Watson, who remembered his Greek history, failed to see the connection.

“It’s quite simple,” Holmes said.  “Watson goes into the toy shop under the pretext of buying a birthday present for a nephew.  In the process of looking around, he leaves the camel in the shop.  There are a few string puppets for sale, so the camel won’t look out of place.  He then leaves the shop, saying he will check with the boy’s mother as to what she would consider suitable.  In the afternoon he returns and buys the camel.”

“I seem to have missed a step in this process,” Watson said.  “Why should I want to buy back a camel puppet for which had no use in the first place?”

“Because,” Holmes smiled triumphantly, “like the Trojan horse, the Ferret will be inside the camel and will have heard all the conversations.”

There was total silence for half a minute, which was broken by a chorus of ‘How do we do that?’ ‘He’ll never fit’ and ‘Don’t be ridiculous, Holmes’.

And then finally, the Ferret saying, “I’ve never been inside a Trojan horse!”

***

Reason did not prevail, and somehow or other the Ferret was inserted into the camel.  He complained he couldn’t perform as a puppet camel because his legs being shorter than that of the camel the lower part of the puppet legs were full of wadding.  Holmes reassured him it was unlikely he’d be expected to perform since he would only be in there for a few hours.

Watson carried the camel to the shop and left it beside the other puppets in the window display.  He then departed to visit a couple of his patients having told the shopkeeper he would be back later.  So far, everything was going to plan.

However, since everyone but Holmes had agreed this was a *** stupid plan [insert own choice of word], the Ocelot had decided to keep watch in case anything untoward happened.  It was as well he had.  About an hour later another man entered the shop and a few minutes after that the camel was lifted out of the display.  The Ocelot saw the body of the camel had gone limp, which meant the Ferret had had sufficient warning to get out of it.  Hurriedly the Ocelot made his way back to Baker Street to let Holmes know about the development.

“Watson’s still out,” Holmes said, “So I shall have to go to the shop myself.  I need to know what’s happening and I can’t leave the Ferret there for too long.”

Not wishing to be recognised, Holmes hastily donned a disguise and took a cab to the toyshop. 

Once inside he looked around and then send to the shopkeeper, “I believe you have a camel string puppet, but I can’t see it.  I was hoping to buy one for my grandson.  Do you still have one?”

“Let me see, madam,” the shopkeeper said.

He came out from behind the counter, walked around Holmes and hit him on the back of the head.

***

Meanwhile, the Ferret was following the man who had taken the camel.  During the brief conversation the man and the shopkeeper had had, he’d realised they were planning to use the camel for something, so had climbed out and hidden inside the railway carriage of the toy train which was nearby.

The two men had opened the camel out, ripping some of the stitching in the process – the Ferret thought Aemelia would be rather cross about that, she always was when he did it.  They had then pushed something inside the camel, the Ferret hadn’t been able to see what, and the first man had left, the Ferret close behind.

The man hadn’t gone too far before he turned into a pub.  The Ferret trotted inside, and watched the man go into one of the bars and place the camel on a grubby windowsill behind a sorry looking aspidistra.  The man then departed.

Since whatever was happening seemed to involve the camel, which the Ferret had come to think of as his camel, since at one point he’d been wearing it, he decided it would be best if he could manage to save it.  Accordingly, the Ferret hopped up onto the windowsill, wriggled behind the camel and pushed it onto the floor.  He then proceeded to drag the camel across the floor and towards what he took to be a side door.

He was almost there when two other men came into the bar and made their way straight for the windowsill.  They immediately found the camel no longer there, so they began to search for it on the floor.  Hurriedly the Ferret pulled the camel the rest of the way to the side door and out into a yard.

He was left with a dilemma.  It wasn’t easy dragging the camel, and yet he didn’t want to leave it where it was in case the men found it.  He put his nose inside the camel and realised the shopkeeper must have replaced the wadding which had been in the legs with something else.  Whatever the replacement was, it still meant the Ferret could get inside the camel, and, in a rather ungainly fashion, he was able to walk.  He wobbled his way out to the main road.

***

The Ocelot had waited in 221B for Dr Watson to return from seeing his patients.  As soon as he appeared, the Ocelot told him about the disappearance of the camel.

“I’m concerned Holmes hasn’t returned yet,” the Ocelot added.  “His intention was simply to collect the Ferret and come back.”

“In which case we’d better go and see if we can find out what’s happened,” Watson replied.  “If all else fails I can always go into the shop and buy something else for my supposed nephew and see if I can learn anything.”

They caught a cab and were soon outside the toyshop.

“It’s shut,” Watson said.  “That’s not a good sign.”

The Ocelot, meanwhile, had been looking up and down the street.  He waited for woman to walk past before he whispered, “There’s a camel coming towards us.”

Watson looked along the street and caught sight of a rather drunken looking camel heading in their general direction.  Quickly he walked towards it and scooped it up.

“Hurry,” the camel said, “they’re after me!”

“What!”  Dr Watson exclaimed.

“Well, not really me, but the camel.  I’m just inside it.”

Fortunately, Watson understood the Ferret’s meaning, and hailed a passing cab.

“Where to, guvnor?” the cabbie called.

“221 Baker Street, please.”

Watson helped the Ferret extricate himself from inside the camel as they travelled.  The material the camel was made from was not designed for the sort of wear it had been subjected to that day, so some of the threads had got tangled round his legs.  But finally, the Ferret was out, and Watson was able to examine the packets which had replaced the wadding.

“Hmm,” he said.  “No wonder they were after the camel.”

Once back at Baker Street, Watson sent a telegram to Lestrade requesting his urgent attendance.

Lestrade arrived within the half hour.

“Thank you for coming,” Watson said.  “I’m afraid Holmes is missing.  He went to visit the toyshop this morning, in disguise, and I’ve not seen him since.  However, we have retrieved this camel from the toy shop, and you may be interested in the packets which are in the legs.”

Carefully, Lestrade removed one of the packets and inspected the white powder which was inside it.  “Very interesting,” he said.  “I’ll take some men and search the toy shop immediately.”

***

“How’s your head now?” Watson asked, later that day.

“Better, thank you,” Holmes replied.  He looked rather rueful.

“What did Lestrade say when he found you tied up at the back of the toy shop?”

“That if I would insist on wearing a flimsy bonnet it would never protect my head the way a bowler hat would.”

Watson laughed.  “Oh well, I suppose your plan worked in the end.  Although not in the way you anticipated.”

“What happened to the camel?”

“Lestrade’s taken it as evidence.”

“That’s a shame.  I’d had another idea.”

“No more camels, thank you very much, Mr Holmes,” Aemelia said firmly.

 


End file.
